Matt Jackson
Just weeks ago, Dagenham & Redbridge kicked off in the third tier of English football for the first time in their history, and it marked only the beginning of the next chapter of what is already a remarkable story. A small club, who are defying all the critics, they now face their biggest challenge yet, surviving in League One. It will be an extremely difficult task, but that won’t put this ambitious club off.
By tracing the heritage of previous forms of the club, their history can be dated back as far as 1881, but the real tale begins in 1991. After gaining promotion to the Conference, effectively England’s fifth tier, Redbridge Forest had little choice but to move to playing at Dagenham’s Victoria Park, in order to comply with stadium regulations. The following year, the two clubs merged to form the outfit currently known as Dagenham & Redbridge FC.
In the wake of this merger though, progress was not immediately forthcoming. After four mixed seasons, the club were relegated in 1996, and it took them another four seasons to bounce back. On their return, however, they established themselves as a much stronger Conference outfit, with some high placed finishes. In 2007, The Daggers as they are affectionately known, finally reached the Football League, winning the division after early leaders Oxford United collapsed. After surviving their first season in League Two, Dagenham & Redbridge narrowly missed out on the playoffs the following season, but their upward trajectory was clear; The Daggers were going places. Last season the club not only made the end of season party, they won the playoffs and were heading upwards again, to League One. A quick rise for such a small team came as an undoubted to shock to the many who had written them off.
The real success has come within the last five years, and it is no coincidence that this has been with manager John Still at the helm. The 60-year-old had previously managed the team until 1994, but had gone on to try his hand at Peterborough and Barnet. Still’s return in 2004 didn’t yield instant rewards, with two mid-table finishes initially, and he hasn’t been without his problems either: last season, an ongoing gall stones problem meant he missed several games, leaving assistant Terry Harris in charge. Nonetheless, the Londoner has turned the club’s fortunes around in the last few years, and generated a reputation as shrewd customer in the transfer market, a manager capable of polishing gems from non-league football and transforming them in to the, almost, finished article. Still has also worked the loan market effectively.
This surely, then, is a textbook case of a ‘small club done good’, with everyone desperate to jump on the bandwagon and announce ‘the sky’s the limit’ for Still’s side. For a team like The Daggers, however, there is a harsh reality: this is probably as far as they’ll ever go. Ambition can get a side a long way, but there are certain factors that sit like boulders in the path of the road to the big time, unable to be circumnavigated. Holding onto players, for example, has always been an issue, as players see the club, and particularly Still, as a stepping stone, a chance to develop themselves, and move on to better things. Before the 2009/10 season, Dagenham & Redbridge lost no less than nine players, testing the manager’s transfer abilities to the limit.
Possibly the biggest factor pointing to a stalling ride, however, is simply their location. The club are overshadowed by their nearby neighbours, West Ham, with fans drawn like moths to a flame by the chance to watch Premier League football. In a season when The Daggers got promoted from League Two, their average attendance was just over 2,000, one of the lowest in the division. Without a bigger following, they will always struggle to generate the revenue required to fund progress through the divisions.
That said, however, don’t expect this club to just accept its lot. After promotion, The Daggers were quickly installed as the bookies’ favourites for relegation, but if one thing can be guaranteed, it’s that if that prophecy does come true, they’ll go down swinging. Still gets his team playing good, attacking football, and scoring plenty of goals: He also works hard to bring in the right players that fit in with the ethos he instils, and expects his team to give everything they’ve got. New signing Stuart Lewis summed it up best: “it’s about having the right personality, work ethic, winning mentality and the desire to work together” as well as proclaiming that “from what I’ve seen, relegation is not something we even have to contemplate”. These may be the words of an eager new signing keen to impress the manager and fans, but it also says a lot about the attitude of the team.
So how will they do this season? Their start hasn’t been good – with two losses in the league, they’re bottom of the table, and got knocked out of the League Cup too. Playing Sheffield Wednesday and Notts County was a hard start to League One life, though, and arguably masks a team that has equipped itself for a good battle this year. Promotion has enabled Still to look at players of a slightly higher quality, and the 60-year-old has been able to bring in some with league experience, an attribute lacking in many of his previous signings: Luke Wilkinson from Portsmouth and Damian Scannell from Southend look like potentially good captures. The eye for a bargain is clearly still there in the wily old boss, however, with players also coming in from the likes of Grays and Histon, hoping to be the next diamond found in the rough.
The outcome of this chapter is a huge unknown, and no one can predict what will happen. If one thing is for certain though, it’s that this will certainly be a story worth following. Fans of many other teams across the country will no doubt be keeping an eye out for The Daggers’ scores as the results come in at five o’clock on a Saturday afternoon.
